Sewing-machine



(No Model.) 2 sheets-#sheet 1.

E. B. ALLEN.

SEWING MACHINE.

` No..580,355. Patented Apr. 13, 1897'.

CM1/20v' 'uf-14414 /wE/vro W yg@ (summier.)

E. B; ALLEN.

' SEWING MACHINE.

ml lglllllu "H131".

ummm.

2 sheete-sheet 2.

Patented Apr. 13, 1897.

l/V VE N TOR Arrdfmfy,

IlNiTfnn STATES TATnNT Trice,

EDVARD B. ALLEN, OF ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO THE SINGER MANUFACTURING COMPANY,

OF NEW JERSEY.

SEWING-MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Application filed April 7, 1896. `Serial No. 586,543.

Letters Patent No. 580,355, dated April 13, 1897.

(No model.)

T0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD B. ALLEN ,Ia citizen of the United States, residing at Elizabeth, in the county of Union and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Sewing-Machines, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

My invention relates to that class of lockstitch sewing-machines, in which the needlethread is carried around the lower or locking thread by a shuttle having either a reciproeating or a continuous rotary movement, the said lower or locking thread being contained in a stationary case around which the loops of needle-thread are carried by the shuttle; and my invention has for its object to irnprove the class of machines referred to so that they will be adapted for higher speeds than at present.

All rotating or oscillating shuttle machines at present in use and employing a stationary bobbin or cop case containing the lower or locking thread require a relatively large loop of needle-thread to encompass the mass of said lower or locking thread wound on a bobbin or in the form of a cop housed in said case. A large bobbin or cop is of course desirable to avoid stopping the machines frequently to replace the empty bobbins with full ones or to supply new cops, and there is therefore a practical limit as to the size of the bobbin or cop case which must be employed, and a reduction below a certain size would be objectionable.

One of the objects of my invention, therefore, is to provide such a construction and relative arrangement of the bobbin-case and shuttle as will enable a smaller loop of needle-thread to encompass a bobbin of a given size held in a stationary bobbin-case and which has heretofore required a much larger loop, thereby enabling me to employ a takeup with a shorter and easier movement than heretofore, as well as avoiding drawing so much thread back and forth through the eye of the needle.

Although certain features of my invention may be advantageously employed in machines in which the shuttles have continuous rotary movements,or in what are known as rotary shuttle machines, my invention is more particularly adapted for machines in which the shuttles have reciprocating rotary movements and which are known as oscillating-shuttie machines. These oscillating shuttle machines as heretofore constructed and having stationary bobbin or cop cases have required oscillating-shuttle movements of something more than half a circle to enable the loops of needle-thread to be carried around the bobbin or cop cases, thesmallest oscillating-shuttle movements heretofore practicable for this purposebeing from two hun dred and six degrees to two hundred and teu degrees. For high-speed machines of course it is much better to have the bobbin or cop cases stationary rather than movable with the shuttles, so as to avoid moving more weight than is absolutely necessary in operating the rapidly-moving shuttles. I have discovered, however, that a stationary bobbin-case may have a pivotal connection with the shuttle, so as to be supported thereby and still be arranged eccentric to the point about which the shuttle oscillates, and that by thus arranging the bobbin-containing case eccentric to the center of oscillation of the shuttle the loops of needle-thread can be carried around the said case by a very much lesser movement of the shuttle than heretofore, so that instead of requiring a shuttle movement of considerably more than half a circle, as in machines at present in use, my improved oscillatingshuttle machine requires a shuttle movement of only about one hundred and fiftyeight degrees, or considerably less than half a circle, for practical use, and, in fact, an oscillating-shuttle movement of as little as one hundred and lifty-two degrees is practically quite possible with a short-pointed shuttle. This lessening of the oscillating movements of the shuttle enables me to increase the speed of this class of lock-stitch machines nearly or quite one-third by reason of the following advantages secured: In the present Singer oscillating shuttle machines the bell-crank rocker, through which motion is communicated from the rotating main or needle-operatin g above the work-plate to the shuttle-driving IOO i shaft journaled in the arm shortened shuttle and needle movements above described, resulting from the eccentric arrangement of the stationary bobbin-case or thread-case, I of course secure the advantages of the smaller loops of needle-thread required to encompass the lower or locking thread and resulting in shorter and easier movements of the take-up, this last-named feature of my invention being applicable alike either to rotary or oscillating shuttle machines, and as an easy take-up movement is one of the most difficult to secure in lockstitch machines, owing to the limited time in which it must be performed, the advantages of this feature of my invention will be fully apparent to those skilled in the art to which it relates. p

My improved machine comprises, in addition to the features above generally outlined, a bobbin-ejector with which is preferably connected a push-rod which shoves out the slide covering the opening` in the work plate through which access is had to the shuttle, so that when an empty bobbin is thrown out by the ejector the slide will also be removed for the convenient insertion of a full bobbin into the shuttle.

In the accom panying drawings, Figure l is rock-shaft beneath the work-plate, has necessarily, in order that said rocker may have the proper range of movement, a very short arm, to which the pitman extending from said arm to the crank on the driving-shaft is connected. YV ith this short operating-arm and the large movement which this rocker must necessarily have the joint between the arm and pitman is at the two extremes of the oscillating movements of the rocker brought very close to the dead-point or to a center line drawn from the center of the crank above to the center of oscillation of the rocker, and this causes a somewhat hard or harsh movement of the parts at these periods of the operation of the machine. This hard crharsh movement detracts in ameasure from the capacity of the machine for high speeds. In my improved machine, in which a much lesser movement is required for the rocker, the latter is provided with a longer operating-arm than heretofore, so that the pitman connection never comes very near the dead-point referred to, and the longer operating-arm results in a very much easier movement of the rocker and of the shuttle-shaft which it operates, and which shaft also has a lesser movement than heretofore, thereby adapting these parts for much higher speeds a front end view of an oscillating-shuttle mathan in the old machines. chine embodying my invention. Fig. l is a Owing to the lessened movements of the shuttle-shaft and shuttle, as above explained, they can also be made somewhat slower with relation to the movements of -the' drivingshaft, and this enables me to impart a lesser movement to the needle-bar by nearly onequarter of an inch than in the old machines of this classrand in which, in order to get the proper timing of the needle and shuttle, to enable the former to get out of the way of the latter, the needle necessarily descended lower than was required merely to form the loops for the shuttle. In other words, I operate the needle-bar of my improved machine from a shorter crank than is employed in the old machines, and as the throw of the needle-bar is less than heretofore the friction thereon is also less at a given rate of speed, thereby adapting this important element of the machine for higher speeds. Furthermore, the shortened throw of the needle-bar permits of the use of a needle shorter by three-sixteen ths of an inch than that required by the old machines of the same class, and this is greatly advantageous in that the eye of the needle will be lifted above the work earlier in each stitch-forming operation of the machine, so that but very little thread will be drawn down, even by a short-pointed shuttle, before the eye of the needle is above the work, and by using a shuttle with a somewhat elongated point or beak the eye of the needle is easily cleared from the upper surface of the work before the shuttle in expanding the needleloop begins to draw down thread'.

. In addition to the advantages in my improved oscillating-shuttle machine of the front view, on a larger scale than Fig. l, of the lower part of the machine,with the shuttle in a different position than in Fig. 1. Fig. 2 is a` vertical section through the arm and work-plate, showing the connections between the upper and lower shafts. Fig. 3 is a bottom view of my improved machine. Figs. 4, 5, and 6 are detail views of the shuttle and bobbin-case, the shuttle being represented in Fig. 4 in the position it occupies just before it starts forward to take a loop of needlethread, while in Fig. 5 it is shown in the position relative to the bobbin-case which it is in when it is far enough forward to have carried a loop of needle-thread around past the center of said bobbin-case. Fig. 7 is a detail front view of the sh uttle-driver.

The machine herein illustrated is in its general features essentially the same as the wellknown Singer oscillating-shuttle machine in that it comprises the usual bracket-arm A, mounted on the work-plate B, and in which former is journaled the driving-shaft C, having at its forward end the crank c, connected by a pitman c with the needle-bar D, carrying an eye-pointed needle d, said shaft having near its rear end a crank c2, connected by a pitman c3 with the arm e of a bell-crank rocker, the lower arm e of which is slotted toembrace a slidef, entered bya pin f', carried by an arm f2 at the rear end ofa shuttleoperatin g rock-shaft F, journaled in hangers b, beneath the work-plate B, and provided at its forward end with 4the shuttle-driver f4, extending within the circular shuttle-race b, attached to lugs b2, depending from said workplate. This machine also comprises what is IOO IOS

IIO

known as the Singer link take-up J, covered by United States Patent No. 462,398, dated November 3, 1891.

Within the shuttle-race is arrangedl the shuttle G, to the center of oscillation of which is jointed at h the bobbin or thread case H, inclosing the bobbin h5, the joint or pivotal connection of said bobbin or thread case being, as will be clearly apparent from the drawings, eccentric to the said bobbin-case. The center of oscillation of the shuttle G is, as will be understood, concentric or coincident with the center of motion of the shuttle-operating shaft F.

The joint at h forms a pivotal support of the bobbin-case on the shuttle, and said bobbin-case is held stationaryin the usual manner while the shuttle oscillates about it by a prong h of said bobbin-case entering a notch or recess in the shuttle-race. The stationary bobbin-case is eccentrically supported on the shuttle above and to the right, Fig. 1, of the center of the shuttle-driving rock-shaft F or the center of oscillation of the said shuttle, so that as the shell-shuttle moves forward said bobbin-case will be well up within said shuttle and comparatively near tothe periphery thereof, and being also well to the right of the center of oscillation of the shuttle the latter can carry the loops of needlethread far enough around said bobbin-case so that they will be in position to be drawn u p by the take-up without requiring the point of said shuttle to pass much, if any, below a point which would be forty-five degrees below a horizontalline intersecting` the center of the shuttle-operating shaft or the center of the shuttle-race. In other words, owing to the eccentric arrangement of the stationary bobbin-case relative to the center of motion of the oscillatory shuttle the latter is enabled to carry the loops of needle-thread around the formerwith a very much smaller oscillating movement than heretofore, this result being due to the fact that as the shuttle moves forward in expanding and passing through a loop of needle-thread it travels toward the body of the bobbin-case, so that the latter becomes more and more completely housed within the side walls of the shuttle-shell as the shuttle enlarges and passes into the needle-loop and carries the latter around below the loop-dividing part of the bobbin-case.

To provide for the convenient removal of the empty bobbins from the shuttle, I have furnished my improved machine with a bobbin-ejector consisting of a sliding rod t, guided in the front hanger b, in which the shuttleshaft is journaled, and connected by a link t to an operating-lever I, pivoted at e" to the under side of the work-plate B, said lever having at its outer or forward end a handle t2, extending beyond the front side of the said work-plate. To remove the shuttle cover or slide b5 when an empty bobbin is ejected for the convenient insertion of a full bobbin, I provide a second slide-rod is, guided at its `ver and to the under forward part in one of the shuttle-race hangers, and also connected by a link 717 to the lever I, the front end of said rod 713 being herein shown as impinging' against the holdingspring t7 on the shuttle cover or slide, so as to force the latter outward to an open position when. the lever I is moved forward to eject a bobbin. The leverI is retracted and is normally held in its rearward or idle position by a coil-spring 114, connected to said leside of the work-plate.

VAt the timewhen a bobbin is to be ejected from the bobbin-case the shuttle is moved to its eXtreme backward position, (shown in Figs. 1 and 4,) in which position it is entirely clear of the path of movement of the bobbin-ejector t', the bobbin-case I'I having in its rear wall an opening h4 for the passage of the ejector i in forcing a bobbin out of said bobbin-case. The sleeve or hub f, by which the shuttledriver f4 is attached tothe shaft F, is provided with a guard-flange f7, which prevents the bobbin-ejector from being pushed forward excepting when the shuttle is in its extreme backward position, at which time a recess or notch f8 in said iiange registers with said ejector and permits of its passage. This guard-flange prevents the accidental operation of the ejector at an improper time,which might result in breakage.

In the operation of my machine the shuttle moves .from its eXtreme backward position, (shown in Fig. 1,) in which the needle is at its lowest point, to the forward position, (shown in Fig. 13,) in which latter position the loop of needle-thread will have been carried far enough around the stationary eccentric bobbin-case so that it is now in position to be easily drawn up by the take-up.

rhe shuttle with its eccentrically and pivotally attached bobbin-case herein shown is not herein claimed, as this feature of my invention is embraced by my application, Serial No. 586,544, iiled simultaneously herewith.

Having thus described my claim and desire to secure by ent- 1. In a lock-stitch sewing-machine, the combination with a needle and its operating mechanism, of a shuttle-operating shaft, a circular shuttle-race, a shuttle running in said race, and a stationary bobbin or thread case pivotally supported on said shuttle at a point which is concentric with the center of motion of the latter, but eccentric to the said bobbin or thread case.

2. In alock-stitch sewing-machine, the combination with a needle and its operating mechanism, of an oscillating or rocking shuttledriving shaft, a shuttle operated by said sh aft and a stationary bobbin or thread case pivotally supported on said shuttle at a point which is concentric with the center of motion of the latter, but which is eccentric to the said bobbin or thread case.

3. In alock-stitch sewing-machine, the cominvention, I Letters Pat- IIO ISO

bination with a needle and its operatin g mechanism, of an oscillating shuttle. a bobbin or thread case pivotally and eccentrically supported on said shuttle at a point concentric with the center of motion of the latter, and mechanism for oscillating said shuttle about said bobbin or thread case in a circular path of lesser extent than a halt-circle.

4. In a lock-stitch sewing-machine, the combination with a shuttle-race, a shuttle running therein and a shuttle, of a bobbin-ejector movable longitudinally of the machine or transverse to said shuttle-race, shuttle and bobbiu, an operating device or lever for said bobbin-ejector, a shuttle cover or slide, and means, operated by said device or lever7 whereby when the latter is operated to eject a bobbin said shuttle cover or slide will be opened to permit of the ready insertion oi a full bobbin.

5. In a lock-stitch sewing-machine, the combination with a shuttle-race, a shuttle therein, an operating-shaft for said shuttle and a bobbin ejector arranged adjacent to said shaft and movable transversely to said shuttie-race and shuttle, of a bobbin-case having a rear wall provided with an opening for the passage of said bobbin-ejector, and ating' device or lever an operfor the latter: wherebjT bobbin supported by saidI the hobbin can be thrown out by said ejector Without removing the bobbin-case from the shuttle.

6. In a lock-stitch sewing-machine, the combination With the shuttle-race, shuttle, bobbin-case, bobbin, and shuttle cover or slide, of the bobbin-ejector fi, its spring-retracted operating-lever I to which said ejector is connected, and the sliding rod 3 also connected to said lever and serving to open said shuttle cover or slide when a bobbin is ejected.

7. In a lock-stitch sewing-machine, the combination with the shuttle-race, shuttle, bobbin-case, bobbin and a normally stationary bobhin-ejector, of a guard movable with the said shuttle when the latter is in operation and which prevents the said ejector from being pushed forward to force out abobbin excepting when said guard is in some predetermined position relative to said normally stationary ejector7 thereby avoiding danger of breakage by accidental 'operation of the ejector at an improper time.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

EDVARD B. ALLEN.

Vitnesses:

HENRY CALVER, JosEPH F. JAQUITH. 

